01:06 amThe Saturn IB rocket. The second stage of that rocket was the S-IVB and was used as the third stage for the Saturn V rockets which would go to the moon.

A walkway to a mock up of an Apollo capsule:

The interior:

The space mirror memorial at Kennedy Space Center:

A plaque opposite the mirror:

You sort of have to put that out of your mind. There's always a possibility that you can have a catastrophic failure, of course; this can happen on any flight; it can happen on the last one as well as the first one. So, you just plan as best you can to take care of all these eventualities, and you get a well-trained crew and you go fly.

— Gus Grissom

This would have been the first flight of the Block I Apollo Command Module. Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were scheduled for 14 days in orbit to test launch, ground tracking, and control facilities.

The crew members were using the time to run through their checklist again, when a voltage transient was recorded at 6:30:54 (23:30:54 GMT). Ten seconds later (at 6:31:04), after Chaffee said the word "Hey", scuffling sounds followed for three seconds before Grissom reported a fire that began that minute. Chaffee then reported, "We've got a fire in the cockpit," while White responded to Chaffee's comment. After 12 seconds,[17] Chaffee urged the crew to get out of the command module.[17][18] Some witnesses said they saw White on the television monitors, reaching for the inner hatch release handle as flames in the cabin spread from left to right and licked the window. The final voice transmission from the crew was very garbled. "They’re fighting a bad fire—let’s get out. Open ‘er up" or, "We’ve got a bad fire—let’s get out. We’re burning up" or, "I’m reporting a bad fire. I’m getting out." Only 17 seconds after the first indication by crew of any fire, the transmission ended abruptly at 6:31:21 with a cry of pain and then a hiss as the cabin ruptured after rapidly expanding gases from the fire over-pressurized the CM to 29 psi (200 kPa) and burst the cabin interior.

Comments:

These are some seriously epic pictures. Now I'm lit with the desire to go there. I suppose I'll do the next best thing and go down and see what's changed in seattle's museum of flight in the last decade or two.

Believe it or not, I can't find a word about it in any of my texts around here.

I know that they will scrub launches if the clouds are too low (5,000 feet), too widespead, or too thick (about 4,500 feet). They can also be too cold -- temperatures have to be no lower than -20 C. Any precipitation is also a no-go.

There are some worries about the effect of a lightning strike. Apollo 12 was struck by lightning and lost some equipment as a result. That was very nearly an aborted launch, actually. My guess is that this is the main reason why weather can kill a launch.

Interestingly enough, weather can cause a scrub even if the sky is perfectly clear over the launch site -- it has to be clear over the abort sites as well.